


The Family You Choose

by Amaria_Anna_D



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Background Slash, Canon Disabled Character, Family Feels, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 19:39:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10315526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amaria_Anna_D/pseuds/Amaria_Anna_D
Summary: Gabe is trying hard to move on with his life. He is not expecting Daisy to appear out of the blue in his dorm room, and he certainly isn't expecting to come to care about the spy like a sister.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I am new to writing AoS and Daisy... Be gentle please. Also, this is meant to be ambiguous about the timeline.

Gabe can’t help being absolutely floored when he comes home to the dorm find Daisy Johnson sitting on his bed. Of course, it’s not too shocking that a trained spy could handle the simple locks on his door or the badge access to get into the building. It’s not about how she got there that he finds surprising. He can’t figure out for the life of him _why_ she’s there. Rather than make a fuss with an open door, Gabe pushes his chair forward and closes the door behind him.

“Hi,” she says nervously as her gaze meets his.

“Hi,” he replies flatly. They haven’t spoken since a few days after Robbie died. Coulson got Gabe a spot at MIT under a false last name. S.H.I.E.D dropped him off on campus with a topped off bank account, a car, and fully paid tuition. He hadn’t thought he’d see any of them again. Least of all Daisy.

“It’s been a while,” she murmurs, letting her eyes flit around his tiny room.

“Why are you here, Daisy?” Gabe asks. It’s been a long day of classes. He’d been looking forward to a nice, quiet night.

The spy shrug and stands up. “I guess I just wanted to see how you’re holding up.”

Gabe shrugs. He’s not exactly sure how to answer. On one hand, he’s doing a hell of a lot better than he’d expected after losing all the family he had left in this world… after finding out his brother had made a deal with the devil and his beloved uncle had all but become one. He gets up, he goes to class, and he lives his life. What had she expected that he’d have fallen into a pit of despair and never crawled out? He loves Robbie too much and respects his brother’s memory too much to let that happen. In the end, he decides to go with the easy version of the truth. “I get by.”

“Glad to hear that,” she says honestly. She gives him a quick once over, almost like she needs to reaffirm that he’s still living. Her eyes land on his chair. “New wheels?”

“It’s amazing what happens when you have good insurance and enough money to cover the deductible,” he scoffs wryly.

The chair in question is a far cry from the bulky, heavy hospital style chair he’d had to make due with previously. It’s a rigid frame, light weight model with a low back and cambered wheels that make pushing himself around campus a hell of a lot easier. Robbie had fought with the insurance company to get something like this back home, but that had gotten him next to nowhere and there wasn’t enough cash to spring for it out of pocket. In fact, there were about a dozen things he could think of that he’d been able to get since coming to campus that had been out of his reach before. He should be just a little thankful for it. He’s not. He’d give it all back in a second to have just one more day back in L.A. with Robbie.

“Look,” Daisy begins, shoving her hands into the pockets of her hoodie, “I didn’t come here to piss you off. This is kind of awkward. I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay. I thought just maybe it would have made Robbie rest a little easier to know someone was checking in on you.”

He almost throws the words back in her face. Robbie wasn’t resting. He was dead and gone. And what right did she have to check in on him at all? Then it hit him. It _was_ something Robbie would have wanted.

“Really, Daisy, I’m okay,” he says with a small smile. “I’m lonely. I miss him, but I’m okay.”

She sinks back onto the bed. “I figured you would be. You’re a hell of a lot tougher than most people I know.”

“Because of the chair?” he snorts. He’s sick of people assuming that he must have to be some sort of fucking hero merely to exist with a disability, but he’s not entirely sure that’s what Daisy means.

“Because you survived all of that crazy shit to begin with. Knowing what you know—what we know, it’s not easy. Some people can’t handle it.” She gives him another shrug as if to say that sometimes _she_ can’t handle it.

“How about you?” he asks, resting a hand on her knee lightly. “How are you holding up?”

“Stuff just keeps happening. Everything gets weirder by the day, but it’s not like I can change it. For better or worse, this is my life.” The instant the words are out of her mouth she stiffens. It’s pretty obvious that she didn’t meant to say them aloud, let alone to Gabe. She squeezes his hand a little and gets back up.“I should get going”

“Daisy,” he calls when she grasps the door handle. She looks back at him over her shoulder, and she looks almost vulnerable. “Thanks for coming. It means a lot. And I know you miss him, too.”

Her eyes look slightly watery, but she bobs her head a little. Almost as quickly as she appeared, she’s gone.

A week passes before Gabe hears from Daisy. He gets an email from her. It’s just a few words, but it makes him smile.

_Thanks for cheering my ass up._

_D._

That quick little email begins an almost pen pal like relationship between them. Their emails are vague by necessity. Gabe’s portions are much more detailed than Daisy’s. He tells her about his classes and the friends he’s slowly making. He even goes as far as telling her about Victor:

_I met him in my economics class. He’s a year older and originally from the Bay Area. We met on the first day of class in the ADA seating. He has cerebral palsy. It’s not so bad that he can’t walk, but he doesn’t walk well. He uses a chair part time and crutches the rest. I shouldn’t be grateful that someone else is disabled, but it feels nice to talk to someone who doesn’t need to adjust to being around a guy in a chair. With everyone else, it’s like there is this learning curve, but not Victor. He gets it because this is his reality, too. I didn’t need to field a million and one stupid questions about my paralysis the day I met him. It just feels nice, you know? I know it’s kind of stupid to get worked up over a study session, but I’m meeting him for coffee tonight just the two of us. Every other time, there’s been a group. It’s not a date, but I’m kind of nervous._

Daisy’s reply reminds him a lot of what Robbie would say:

_Go for it! You’re in college. Dating is part of that. Just be sure to update me when it’s all done._

A day later, he does just that:

_Turns out it **was** a date after all. He’s been wanting to ask me out, but was just too shy. We ended up back in my room playing video games and talking for hours. I should have studied harder for the test. I don’t think I aced this one, but it’s worth it. We’re going out again Saturday._

After that, there is a lull in emails between them. Gabe nervously watches the news, praying he doesn’t see Daisy’s face on it. It’s kind of a sucker punch to realize just how much he cares about her, but he does care. She’s the only person he has left that remembers Robbie, too. She even goes out of her way to keep tabs on him, almost like a big sister. When he gets word that she’s okay, he’s elated. Even more so when she tells him she’s going to be dropping by for a visit.

Victor is in his room when she appears—well, ‘knocks’ would be a better term for it. The boys had been on Gabe’s bed kissing and ‘experimenting’ a bit, so he’s not all that pleased with the interruption.

“There in a minute,” he calls, huffing with annoyance. It takes him and Victor longer than most people to get re-dressed and back in their chairs, but thankfully Daisy didn’t seem to mind waiting.

She gives both boys a wide grin with the door opens and leans in to hug Gabe. He doesn’t even want to admit how good that hug feels. Her eyes turn back to Victor who is sitting behind Gabe, blushing for all he’s worth. “So you’re Victor,” she says, turning up the wattage on her smile. She offers him her hand which he takes shyly. “I’m his cousin Liz. I’ve heard a lot about you…all of it better than good.”

“Nice to meet you,” Victor replies. “I...I...uh I should get back to my dorm and finish my paper.”

Gabe is a total bastard and angles his chair so that Victor can’t make his retreat without giving him a kiss first. Once he and Daisy are alone, Gabe let’s out a heavy sigh. “I feel like shit for lying to him, but...”

Daisy nods. “I do know.” She flops down on the mussed up bed like she owns the place and give Gabe a sly grin. “You didn’t say he was super cute!”

“I did too!” Gabe argues. His cheeks feel like they’re on fire, but there’s a familiarity between them that he hasn’t felt in a long time—not even with Victor. It’s a feeling of history and almost like family. The feeling is so strong that it overrides his embarrassment.

“What?” Daisy asks, concern darkening her eyes.

Gabe shrugs. “I’m just glad you’re okay. I was getting really worried.”

“Things get hairy from time to time,” Daisy says ruefully. She rolls her eyes when Gabe shoots her a look. “Okay, things get hairy most of the time.”

“There’s the truth,” he mutters.

They both know that Daisy will continue to put herself in harms way to protect others. It’s who she is. He can't ask her to change that. Much like it would have been pointless to tell Robbie not to worry about him, it would also have been pointless for Daisy to tell Gabe not to worry. He’s glad she doesn’t ask.

With that portion of the conversation over, Daisy pulls out a few Redbox movies from her bag and a couple of video games. They spend the night acting like real siblings; fighting over what to watch/play next, trash talking, teasing. It feels so damn good. Gabe feels guilty for needing this, and that Daisy feels the need to drop everything and come hang out with her dead friend’s baby brother. But then he looks over and sees it out of the corner of his eye. He’s not sure when, but somewhere over the last few hours, Daisy actually relaxed. She looks younger than she did when she showed up at his door. Maybe Daisy needs this as much as he does.

His whole life, Gabe has been preoccupied with blood family. He had so little of it from such a young age that it seemed like he had to hold on for all he was worth. Robbie’s gone now, and so is their uncle (which Gabe has mixed feelings on, if he’s honest). Gabe is the last of the Reyes family. It would be easy to say that he’s all alone in this world. But he’s not alone. It occurs to him suddenly that family is more than blood. It’s a choice. Daisy isn’t his blood, but she is certainly his sister.

 

 


End file.
